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RealMFnG

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I have soooooo many projects to chose from. But I guess I will start with this. Made an 8 hour round trip to pick up this cab. It is actually my 2nd Capcom Big Blue. In all honesty, it isn't quite so "big".

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Here it is standing next to a spare Dynamo HS9 cab, sans monitor and marquee. The HS9 is your standard early 90's cab. As you can see, the Gen 1 Big Blue hasn't quite earned its big reputation just yet. Still though, the Gen 1 Big Blue > Dynamo HS9 any day of the week.

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At some point in time, the operator converted this cab to play Tekken. Someone did an awful job of ordering the correct width Lexan for the job. You can see the depth of the CP really well in this shot.

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Operator wiring special. Some pride will go into rewiring this CP. It will be better than factory once done.

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The signature Gen 1 Big Blue fluted front is displayed here. Surprisingly, this part of the cab is in good shape. I think the depth of the CP on the Gen 1 played a nice role in keeping this part of the cab in good shape. Hardly shoe print can be found here and no wood damage. Only some fraying of the laminate along the bottom.

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For some reason, the glass will not slide under the speaker grill's bottom lip. The good news is the grill is mounted to a wood slab inside the cab. It appears I can loosen the grill's fastener bolts to clear some space to slide the glass under. More good news, this glass appears to be OG, factory tinted, and free of graffiti keying!!

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An OG marquee light and a AC line-in cutoff switch on the top of the cab! Makes one less hole for me to drill. I love AC line-in cutoff switches. Allows me keep certain cabs that are all connected to the same powerstrip off as the power is turned on at the main switch for a row of cabs. As for the marquee, I am going to leave it in there for preservations sake, but I won't even bother to get it going if it works or not. I am going to build a light box and line it with LED strip lights. Less power consumption. Less heat. A slight modification that will save some pennies and keep the marquee art from fading over time.

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Now for some bad news. The side laminate was actually in much better shape when I got this, but I started peeling it off before I took this picture. The good news is the side panel wood is in perfect shape. A few coats of primer. A quick sand job to polish the primer. And a coat of paint or two of paint will get this back to all of its glory. I am eschewing vinyl laminate for paint as I feel paint will last longer than laminate and is more easily repaired if I ever scuff it later.

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One chip in the top left corner of the marquee mount. Once the marquee is inserted and the coping is fastened down, this will be invisible. But I am too OCD to not address this with some bondo.

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Some damage to the top of the back panel. Bondo this or replace? Damn my OCD affliction.

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A shot of the innards from down through the CP. I believe that PSU is dead, but I am not sure. On the left, you can see the PCB mount panel. The JAMMA edge looks to have a few wires hanging loose from it. I have actually never wired JAMMA. All the cabs I have worked on have had the JAMMA wiring intact. But this shouldn't be too big of a task given my current knowledge of arcade cabs (although, I consider myself still a rookie). Going to salvage the JAMMA harness from another Dynamo cab I am converting to a MAME/HyperSpin cab for a pending MvC2 cab trade deal. Then get the wires back in proper order.
 
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This is the 90's equivalent of a modern day Kensington lock for arcade machines. I feel safer with this here.

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That's all for now. Time to peel the rest of this laminate off and get moving on the project!
 
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Here is the other side of the cab. There was a offbeat paint choice made here. A swath of black paint drawn painted along the control panel edge. I suspect the laminate must have started stripping off and the operator made a clean cut, then painted over the wood.
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A Praying Mantis guarding the marquee fin from damage.

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@zero238 mentioned that he saw two shades of blue on this cab. He might be right. Here is the peeled off side panel laminate pinned up against the laminate under the control panel. The side panel laminate appears to be darker; not sure if that is from weathering though. The laminate under the control panel is well protected due to the depth of the control panel.

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Laminate has been peeled off both sides. I would have never attempted this in cold damp weather. Clumps of wood particle would have came off along with the laminate. Thank goodness for the California Sun!

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Praying Mantis making the rounds. Now guarding the left marquee fin from damage.

Even though the laminate under the CP is largely undamaged, I am going to peel that off too. There are some buttons that have been drilled into the cab which I will patch up. Also a security latch is long since gone, but the fasteners remain. Those need to come out too. The holes patched up.
 
Peeled off the old overlay. Then tried to remove the contact cement residue with the heat gun and roll method.

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Only took a good 5 minutes to find out the heat gun and roll method wasn't going to work. Got a few blisters on the my fingertips to prove that. Picked up some lacquer thinner, rubbed it in, and scraped it out with a plastic putty knife. Worked really well. Gave it the Simple Green wash, then applied the marble overlay.

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I lined up the bottom and left edge with some painter's tape and began applying. Smoothing it out with my fingers as I went. Ended up with lots of excess along the top edge. I just folded that over for security. Also have some excess on the right edge that I have to trim off. I folded in the corners and it looks quite stunning even in its pre-populated state. If I ever get another Gen 1 Big Blue, I am going to only line up the left or right edge. Then if I get excess, I can fold it under the top and bottom edge for added security. Now off to get an Xacto knife to cut out the holes.

Bought some Lexan from Home Depot, but it is too thin. I have to return it and order 1/4" thick Lexan online. Hoping to prime this tomorrow and paint it the day after!
 
Good luck! We are behind you dude! Make this one beautiful again!
 
So I picked out from my known working K7000 monitors the best one. Sure was grimy. Just got done spraying Simple Green all over it and it looks like I have an oil spill on my hands.
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So had to pump the brakes on this restoration due to another restoration I am doing for a pending trade. Interestingly enough, I am restoring a Z-back in the vein of a Big Blue SF2CE cab. Here are pics of that restore. I should finish this weekend.

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looking good!

I remember the championship edition big blues at the local pizza parlor and 7-11 when I was growing up, great memories!
 
Finished painting with the blue paint. Need to add a black swath of paint on the inside panel to finish the paint completely. Then molding, control panel, and rewiring.
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I used this paint kit from Harbor Freight. Fairly inexpensive and I will use it around the house to paint cabinents, doors, and trim to boot. Needless to say, an expense that will be instantly approved by the ball and chain. Got other pointers from the pros over there on KLOV about diluting paint and application and away I went!
Nice, I knew you had to spray it. That finish looks awesome bro :thumbsup: . That's the way to do it, gotta love when people use the right tools for the job. I use an Earlex HV5500 Spray Station for refinishing stuff.
 
Nice, I knew you had to spray it. That finish looks awesome bro . That's the way to do it, gotta love when people use the right tools for the job.
I am glad I had this trade to finish up before I got to painting the SF2CE Big Blue. Learned lots and will carry that over to the Big Blue once this trade is complete. Only problem is the weather is cooling off now. I suppose I can get the CP, stereo wired up, and get everything ready for when the time comes again. And clean my garage, LoLoLoL!
 
i may need to pickup that setup from harbor freight...i always have to paint stuff around the garage...how much paint did you end up using to paint the whole cab?
 
About a quart. HVLP doesn't have much overspray at all. Most of the paint you shoot out of HVLP winds up on your targeted surface. I used an 80% paint / 20% distilled water mix. Buy those 1-quart plastic mixing containers with the lid. It will take a few coats to finish. Might take 2-3 days to complete now that the weather is cooling in our area. If it does, empty the paint from the sprayer into the container, put it on the shelf. Clean your spray kit. Pick up the painting process again the next day. Took 2 coats of primer and 5 coats of paint to get there.

If you have access to a good 20 gallon air compressor, skip that kit, save some dough and get this instead. Automotive guys swear by its quality and even rate it as good as some $200 pro guns. Use the same paint mixture. That Harbor Freight #68843 gun with the proper compressor will atomize your paint much better. You'll get a smoother coat. But you might end up working harder for it since the application will be thinner which means more coats. Watch videos on Youtube to see how the pro's do it.

Or just sell me your Big Blue :P
 
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If you have access to a good 20 gallon air compressor, skip that kit, save some dough and get this instead.
@acblunden2 is right on the $$ with this one, those guns are cheap and work just as good as or better than the pro guns, but you need a good, large, fast recovery air compressor to keep up with the spraying, you dont want to lose pressure mid spay, it will ruin your finish. The smaller spray units like the Earlex and HF mentioned use turbine compressors, they are usually really loud.

If you guys are looking to get a quiet air compressor go with http://www.californiaairtools.com/ you wont be dissapointed, my garage is below my master bedoroom, I used to wake up the wife middle of the night running my old porter cable compressor, not anymore, this things are super quiet.
 
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